I have dabbled occasionally with trying to create an interesting composition by jerking or moving the camera while pressing the shutter. I'm not sure what this is called, there was a lady who used to frequent here that was very good at it but her name escapes me. Recently I have been inspired by @Frank F. He has posted some of these in his daily photo thread Frank's daily photo 2017 and rekindled my interest.

Anyway, here is an image that I captured in the fall. I like that there is a small box of distant trees in focus in a good spot within the frame. I am looking for ways to try and control it a little more or is it one of those things that is just lucky? In this one, I was the passenger in a moving vehicle and it seemed natural to do it this way. Feel free to critique the image in a way you think could help me improve using this technique (I am not sure what it is called) or things to read up on.

@jcdeboever you're always trying new things, always learning, that's what I enjoy most about your posts. I've seen the panning technique used with great results. My personal opinion is that it looks better with a "defined" movement as opposed to "random" if that makes sense. I can't wait to see where you go with this.

Nice pan, but in reserve to a normal pan where the photog is stationary and the subject is moving. With a flash, slow shutter and jerking the camera is called Dragging the Shutter. Dunno if there is a different name for a similar technique sans flash.

Sample of Dragging the Shutter

Slow Shutter, at least for me, is fascinating and hard to control. You win some and lose some. But, like most everything else in photography the more you do the better, (more control and learning what works in what situation), you should become.

I guess the lady you mean is PixelRabbit.
In fact you're talking about 2 different techniques here, the way Frank F. uses is known as "panning"
The other way to suggest motion/movement, as used by PixelRabbit, is what you have done here.

You can pan or jerk the camera in the direction the vehicle is moving, or in the opposite direction the vehicle is moving. With a film camera and a focal plane shutter, you need to consider what direction the shutter curtains travel, and what direction the camera or the subject is moving, in relation to the shutter travel direction. Some focal plane shutters in film cameras move horizontally (usually these have slow, top X-synch speed of 1/60 second), but the newer Copal type FP shutters in 35mm cameras move vertically, across the shorter 24mm axis.

Remember the old (early 1900's until about 1940) photos of racing cars, with the elliptical wheels that appeared to be "leaning forward"? That was fairly easy to do with old Graflex-type plate cameras, which had large, slow-travelling focal plane shutters that had to traverse a large piece of emulsion, during which time the car's wheels would actually have "MOVED" forward by the time the shutter imaged part of the wheel.

Jacques Henri Lartigue made a FAMOUS shot this way, I think in 1905 or '08. Took me like 10 minutes to recall his name.

I know you still shoot some film, so some research on focal plane shutters at slower speed will show you that at the slowest speeds, the first shutter curtain will move to OPEN, and then the second curtain will be launched, and will close and thus end the exposure. As the speeds move from slow to faster, the curtains operate more as a fast-moving slit, with 1st curtain being "chased along by" curtain #2, with the width and speed of the moving slit being determined by the needed shutter speed. Now...if the vehicle is in motion as this process happens, and the camera is turned upside down, or moved the "right" or the "wrong" direction, some things are gonna' happen. Not everything is the same, all the time!

With digital cameras, we can get some weird effects. Have you seen the way aircraft propellors can be rendered? Or windshield wiper blades? The image might not be "imaged" at the same, exact time, over the entire sensor area. I used to have these things fairly clear in my mind, but not this Saturday AM...

You do not have to pan smoothly either; you can "jerk" the camera quite harshly, and get some interesting effects.

Jerking the camera briskly allowed me to make this image of colorful glass champagne flutes, back in 2004. I titled this shot "Whimsical Glass", so people would at least have an idea of what the subject is. The champagne flutes were stationary, and were back-lighted, sitting in my kitchen window.

@jcdeboever you're always trying new things, always learning, that's what I enjoy most about your posts. I've seen the panning technique used with great results. My personal opinion is that it looks better with a "defined" movement as opposed to "random" if that makes sense. I can't wait to see where you go with this.

Click to expand...

Thanks @smoke665 . It may be a while, I have a few projects ahead of me, hence the reason posting this. Gather more information in order to pursue further.

Nice pan, but in reserve to a normal pan where the photog is stationary and the subject is moving. With a flash, slow shutter and jerking the camera is called Dragging the Shutter. Dunno if there is a different name for a similar technique sans flash.

Sample of Dragging the Shutter

Slow Shutter, at least for me, is fascinating and hard to control. You win some and lose some. But, like most everything else in photography the more you do the better, (more control and learning what works in what situation), you should become.